Thursday, December 4, 2014

Before Narendra Modi became the PM of India in May 2014, a huge
campaign was launched by the media and politicians against him.
Without going into the lengthy details, it is sufficient to note that
he was snubbed as a man unable to get US Visa since 2005, a “regional
leader”, a man who will do harm to India's image internationally
and so on. The hatred towards Modi was so deep among the so-called secular
society people of India that 65 MPs went to the extent of begging
the President of United States of America to disallow Modi from
coming to US, on a signed letter on an Indian parliamentarian's letter-head. Height of it!

Also, the confidence level on India among the key global investors
was low.

One of the world's biggest consulting firm, McKinsey's CEO DominicBarton came on record recently summing up how the investors felt
about India before Modi came on board:

"I was not (advising clients to come
to India) two years ago because it was complicated... and companies
and clients were deeply frustrated with the bureaucracy, no decisions
getting made. Companies were saying... let us go to Africa, let us go
to Nigeria, let us go to Indonesia, let us just go to the US, but
that has changed. I think because if you look at the trends that are
going on in the world, India is right in the centre"

And things changed.. changed swiftly since India got its first full majority government in 30 years, and the first independent Prime Minister in a decade.

By the time this article is written, Modi has already met 45 world leaders in just 6 months. These leaders are covering every inhabited continent of this planet! He is generating tremendous euphoria and positive vibration among global leaders and investors about India, which was considered as a sleeping giant till now.

So how did he do it?

For starters, Modi began his foreign diplomacy right from the word go. For his swearing in ceremony on May 16, 2014, he invited all the SAARC leaders. Needless to emphasize, even the Pakistani PM came and Modi started off with a very positive note in the immediate neighbourhood. Bhutan's leader said that Modi's swearing in was almost a mini SAARC summit! Now that's a very smart start to his international diplomacy.

Then he started his first international visit in June 2014 to Bhutan. People expect a PM to first look at big and powerful countries, but BJP's ways are very different. They started with a tiny neighbour that is having just 1/13th the population of Bengaluru city, but is strategically important between India and Tibet (China).

Next stop? 14,500 KM away in Brazil. When the whole world was gripped with Worldcup football fever, Modi was quietly working with his team on important positioning of India at the BRICS summit. India gave well thought out presents to the players for good will and came up with good initiatives. South Africa, Brazil, China and Russia were handled diligently. By the time BRICS summit was over, India was positioned to head the brand new BRICS' $100 billion new Development bank. This was an unprecedented move as the strategic vision is to give an alternative to IMF and World Bank in the long run. A completely new pole for international bank assistance that is outside North America and Europe! Big victory scored and eye brows already up in Washington, Berlin and London.

With a huge win up his sleeve just in 6 weeks of becoming PM, Modi now focused back on the immediate neighbourhood. Kathmandu in Nepal, just 100 minutes flight from India's capital, was snubbed by previous Indian PMs for 17 long years. This obviously has reasons originating from Rajiv Gandhi's disastrous Nepal policy when India imposed economic blockade on Nepal in 1989. Narendra Modi's was the first bilateral visit by an Indian PM in 17 years and the repair start process is swift and clean. A key Himalayan state that is a buffer between India and Tibet (China) was let to turn anti India over the past decades due to bad policies. Now things are quickly healing. Another strategic win for India.

Then Modi played his cards very smartly. He had visited Japan as a CM of Gujarat and had good rapport. He knows how to pit Japan against China, and China against US and so on. His diplomatic chess game is paying off big time. Japan agreed within hours to invest $35 billion in India over the next few years. That's a lot of money, almost double of what Japan was saying before! More importantly, this investment is strategically invited in Bullet Trains, smart cities and other badly needed infrastructure for 1.23 billion Indians.

Not just the robust political and diplomatic discussions, Modi also won the hearts in Japan by being a sportive foreign visitor. He sat for Japanese style tea, played with kids, and even played drums. But he didn't forget to link India's heritage city Varanasi with Kyoto to make a point on cultural side too.

As expected, Modi now expected a different perspective from China, Japan's enemy. China's head of state, Xi Jinping visited India in September. This was a Chinese head of state's third visit in 2000 years to the neighbouring India. That shows how strained the relationships have been and how cut off-ed the neighbours have been. Not to mention, China's dual strategy of pinching India at the border with aggression, and then doing smooth talk at trade meets. Modi clearly and openly raised the border issue with China, without trying to be politically correct during a head-of-state visit. Of course, this is something China did not expect after seeing weak governments in India before. Beyond border and other discussions, Modi was able to extract a pledge from China to invest $20 billion over the next 5 years. Note that China has hardly invested anything in India till date. Some figures I have seen show that only $1 billion or so from China into India over the past 2 decades! So this 20 billion $ number is quite a huge number showing the importance of India with China now.

Then Modi focused where the whole world was expecting him to focus. The Uncle Sam!
Here is a man who was in the Visa news for 9 years, suddenly setting up a very high profile itinerary in New York and Washington. Many people were expecting him to keep grudge against US, but like a mature statesman, he opened up his arms and hugged USA in style. He gave UN a lecture on how to run the world, at UN itself! It is stunning that a PM from a developing country can go to UN and give it a lecture on how to run the world affairs better. Then came his most magical moment. The Madison Square Garden. The event was such an extravaganza, paid for by Indians living in America, it caught international attention. #ModiInAmerica was the world's topmost trend on Twitter that day. Nearly 30 US Congressmen, Senators and top leaders came and stood on the stage on a Sunday afternoon. That by itself was something unheard of for any foreign head of state in US. His talks about Mangalyaan and others truly turned the table on the image of India and it's potential.

And PM Modi's speech was classy with crowd going into applause every other minute. He brought in many key issues like keeping India clean, Making in India and investing in India.

Then his visit to Central park, then to other areas, and finally a meeting with Barack Obama. Obama showed extreme interest by taking Modi himself to Marin Luther King memorial!

Not just the image make over for India as "India has arrived", Modi also used his trip very efficiently to sell India's opportunities to 11 Fortune 500 CEOs over a breakfast meeting. Whatever he does, he always has India's job creation in mind. That's a great asset for India. Modi's super success at USA, in spite of his strict fasting schedule during Navaratri, must have been a true heartburn for those 65 MPs who had begged Obama to not let Modi in. These #65Traitors as they were called on social media would have had a hard time to sleep after seeing a rock star reception for Modi, in spite of one trouble making Indian journo trying to spoil the show.

To ice the cake, Modi met with the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. This was the first Indian PM meeting with Israeli PM in over a decade. That shows how keenly Modi is playing his cards. While at it India was also balancing the foreign relationship with those who despise Israel in the region. Modi govt had carefully worked to secure the safe release of over 40 nurses from Kerala from ISIS terrorists. Modi govt also voted in UN and gave pledge to Palestine, but without affecting Israeli relationship. Nice balancing act of a statesman.

And he hosted the Vietnam's head of state Nguyen Tan Dung in India. This was strategically important as Vietnam is in a tough conflict with China over South China sea. And being a strategic thinker, Modi tried to check mate China here with a promise to supply naval vessels to Vietnam, in spite of China's protests. This is the first time India ever stood up with guts to China's bullying, while keeping up the dialogue with China!

After sufficiently taking care of SAARC and other immediate regions, Modi headed east now to Myanmar. The tough cookie of the neighbourhood, this secretive country has for long been a China's ally. Modi did a variety of things for smoother Indo-Myanmar relationships. The strategic ASEAN meetings, bilateral issues with Myanmar and more importantly a tough stand on South China sea to keep China guessing. And, just after 6 weeks, Modi again met with President Obama who in turn called Modi a man of action!

Now to Australia. Modi charmed the guests at the G20 summit in Australia. Modi mania was gripping Australia. For the first time ever, a special Modi train was arranged to get people to Sydney for this AllPhones arena extravaganza. And when he mentioned there that it takes just one overnight flight to come to Australia, but it took the Indian PM 28 years to get there, people just fell in love with him. His speech was as magical as his Madison Square Garden gala, if not better.

His calls in Australia for investment and partnership was well received. Just like in US, here also he talked of OCI and PIO improvements, and in fact what the government had done since US visit. Skill development and cleaning up India were his calls for help needed from Australia. Modi not only charmed the business and political leaders, he also charmed a 3 year old Indian origin girl in Australia by showing special interest!

Then Modi showed his magic in the south Pacific. For those not familiar, south Pacific islands, over a dozen of them, are independent voting countries in the UN. Whenever India has a need for large number of votes, likely in cases of mischief from Pakistan, these could come handy. They vote en-bloc in most cases.

So Modi did something no Indian PM ever thought of till date. He called for a summit of SouthPacific nations in Fiji. Not only that he is the first Indian PM to visit Fiji in over 3 decades, he also managed to keep all the south Pacific islands aligned with India. Incredible diplomacy and statesman skills of a supposedly "regional leader"! Even when dealing with Fiji, which has over 4 lakh Indian origin people, Modi balanced the economic assistance with diplomatic support.

Now back to the immediate neighbourhood. After an unofficial SAARC summit during his swearing in itself, Modi headed to represent India in the SAARC summit in Nepal. Here lots of meetings, proposals and of course, a carefully planned snub to Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif for the misadventure of Pakistan at the border during the prior weeks. In fact, Pakistani journalists reported that India's shelling response to Pakistan's shelling in 2014 was worse than 1971 war! So a strong leader had shown what Indian army could and should do for any misadventure of Pakistan.

Just like in Australia, he stopped the convoy to meet the people standing for his sight. And he was a super hit among Nepali people. India has again captured the minds of Nepalese, after the disastrous economic sanctions of Congress government in 1980s, that pushed Nepalese towards Chinese. Similarly he is repairing the relationship with other immediate neighbours. Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa went to the extent of openly praising Narendra Modi's foreign policy for the release of five Indian fishermen who were facing death row in Sri Lanka!

Similarly Pakistan released Indian fishermen from Karachi. Modi launched the bus service to Kathmandu in Nepal. He is talking to Bangladesh about the resolution of the decades old complicated enclave problem in the border areas.

So Modi addressed the parliaments of many countries. He met 45 world leaders in just 6 months. He has traveled more in the first 6 months as PM than any other PM in India's history. This immediately after he traveled the most miles by any politician in human history for 2014 election campaign! He has dazzled the Indian origin people abroad. He has signed significant treaties. He has charmed G20, SAARC, BRICS, ASEAN and South Pacific summits. He has given a lecture to UN itself in UN. Here's a man who has shown strong will to portray India's military might, young labour potential, entrepreneurial spirit and a definite aim to dominate the 21st century.

How did the world business community watch and react to this monumental vote for change in India during 2014?

In addition to all these foreign trips and diplomacy, Modi had initiated a long list of good governance tasks in India over the past six months. We can talk about them in another article, but it is sufficient to say that he is putting India's governance on the right track. So the initial results are already here.

India's factory growth in November 2014 is the highest in 2 years. Investors are watching Indian factories closely. Eight core industries of India were stagnating at nearly 0% growth in Oct 2013.
In Oct 2014, growing at 6.3%! Foreign investors are waiting to invest now. Global oil prices are helping BJP govt as petrol, diesel and gas prices have come down, helping inflation cut back to five year lows. More than 1 lakh crore Rupees poured into Indian markets this year..
The MOST into any developing country! S&P BSE Sensex has soared 35%.

On the Corruption Perception index from Transparency International that all international investors watch closely, India is now ranked 85th best in the world out of 175.
That's nine spots better than 2013's ranking which is sending positive signals that a government in India is ready to tackle corruption.

In fact, India is now ranked less corrupt than China for the first time in 18 Years! The influential Wall Street Journal highlighted this to the whole world. Business Insider went a step further and said, India is the Last BRIC standing. India needs access to foreign capital, advanced technology, resources, lots of energy, newer markets
and skill set. For that, India should have a secure environment, a peaceful neighbourhood and a stable
world as parliament was told, and most importantly, an open and stable global trading system.

Here's a man who has shown in just six months that he is very much capable of making India stand up to the challenges. He is not remote controlled like the prior one, nor tied down by coalition dharma. He's independent, excellent statesman and a brilliant strategist. Plus, has a very good team supporting him.

Next big show for NRIs? England's Wembley stadium in January with nearly a lakh people! Modi's 2015 schedule is already on the public domain, unlike the secretive foreign trips of prior government's power corners. For the first time in India's history, the President of USA will be at the Republic day march as chief guest. This in spite of India taking on US at WTO aggressively. Modi might have Chinese, Russian and US heads of states visit India within 8 months duration, which is a solid statement of engagement from the world.

Monday, November 3, 2014

In the November 1st Rajyotsava special massive issue of Kannada Prabha (over 150 pages!), I spotted a fabulous essay by Dr. Karjoo Katkar. The title read: "The literary Ganga, that came crossing the border". Started reading, though I was in a hurry as I had only 5 minutes. But it was so interesting, that I ended up reading fully.

Then decided, I must blog the highlights from Dr. Katkar's research. His email ID is in the picture attached. So here I go.. The main purpose is to inform the people of today's Karnataka and Maharashtra, how overlapping their history has been over the past 1500+ years! This is possibly one of the closest sister language cultural evolution in India.

Origin of Kannada and Karnataka:
The word Kannada was also used as "Desha suchaka" or geographical historically, in addition to a linguistic denotation. In 850 CE, Kaviraja Marga literary work had this in Halegannda (old Kannada):

First occurrence "Karnataka":
Dr. Ketkar shows that in Mahabharata, in the Sabha Parva and Bhishma Parva, the word Karnataka is found. Among Hindu Puranas from 1000s of years ago, Skanda Purana, Vishnu Purana and Padma Purana have the mentions of "Karnataka". In the Sanskrit mega drama Mriccha katika of Shudraka from around 400 CE, there is a sentence "Karnataka kalaha prayogam karomi". In the Tamil epic Silappatikaram, which is believed to be from 600 CE, "Karunaadar" is used to refer to the people of Karnataka.

Origin of Marathi and Maharashtra:
In Vararuchi's (most likely Katyayana from 3rd century BC) vyakarana (grammar) texts, the word "Maharashtra" is found. Even though the rashtra or nation/state that we know today didn't exist then, it is said that the term was with respect. Per scholars, "Shesham Maharashreevat" and "Maharashtree" were found in some ancient kavyas (prose), denoting the current location of Maharashtra. Some say the same became "Marahatta" and later "Marahti". Per Saroji Babar, the 6th century Pali literary work "Mahavamshi" (most likely this link from Sri Lanka) refers to Maharashtra as "Maha ratta".

The 13th century Mahanubhava book has "Maharashtra" word. Per Dr. Bhandarkar, "Varhada" or "Varhata" people later became Marathi people. Per Dr. Ketkar's "Marashtra Sanskriticha Itihas", Varhata was the original Maharashtra. The Varhata people migrated from their original place (which I don't know from where), to Krishna Godavari area, culminating in Maharashtra. In the 1190 CE's "LeeLa Charitra", there is a mention of "saari laksha Maharashtra tehi vasavile Ganga teero Triambako vheri". In the 10th century's Dhanapala's "Bhavisya yatta kaha" work, "Verada" word is there which the author suspects as the original word of "Marhada".

In the 779 CE Udyotana Soori's "Kuvayala Malaa Kahaa" work, "Marahatti" word is found. A poet from Kolhapur, Karnapaya wrote "Neminath Purana", which refers to Maharashtra. He's believed to be from 1160 CE per researchers.

The oldest Marathi inscription is actually found in south Karnataka: The oldest Marathi shila shasana (stone or other inscriptions) was incidentally found in Karnataka's Shravana beLagoLa, very famous for the world's largest monolithic stone statue of Jain Gomateshwara or Bahunbali. Shravana beLagoLa is having more than 2000 years of Jain dharma's history and is one of the world's most holy places for Jains.

At the feet of Bahubali's statue there's an inscription "Shri Chavundaraje karaveeyale" and "Gangaraje suttale karaveeyale". These are believed to be the earliest Marathi inscriptions ever found. Chavundaraya's age is somewhere in the 9th century CE. So Marathi might have existed by then.

Marathi in ancient and medieval Kannada literature:
In the
first major poet of Kannada, Adi Kavi Pampa's "Adi Purana" from 941 CE,
there is a mention of Maharashtra. In his other work "Bharata", he uses
"are hoi" from Drona's mouth praising Arjuna. In another Kannada writer Mahakavi Janna's "Anantantha Purana", there is "Uthi Uthi maagaa baisa jaa tu haLoo" (get up, get up, slowly go and sit in the back) Marathi sentence!

Then Vachana sahitya (literary work) period of the 12th century in Kannada, which flourished into the Lingayat or Veerashaiva movement resulting in the largest single group of people in Karnataka today, also has plenty of Marathi words. For instance, the famous vachana composer Allama Prabhu's one vachana has this.

Similarly Sonnalagi Siddarama's or Sonnalagi Siddheshwar's vachanas have Marathi words. Even though he's a Kannadiga, he is worshiped as the "Grama devata" or village deity of Solapur in today's Maharashtra by Marathi people too. There's even a beautiful Siddheshwargad for this saint and poet.

Even Basavanna the founder of Lingayat philosophy and Channa Basavanna's vachanas have a few Marathi words.

Poet Chandratmaja Rudra has written both in Marathi and Kannada. Per
Pandit Avalikar, he was a great bridge between Marathi and Kannada
literature. His Bhamini's Kannada poems are now found. Similarly
Kakhandaki's Mahipati dasa (1640-1705 CE) wrote in both Kannada and
Marathi. So far 754 keertanas of Mahipati dasa have been found. Out of
them, 45 are in Marathi and rest in Kannada.

Sindhagi in Vijayapura (Bijapur) district of Karnataka had a great Kannada writer called Jakkappaiah.

The
above is a story about Vibheeshana in Ramayana by Jakkappaiah, in the same verse of the same chapter, in both Marathi and Kannada! Such
examples are very rare to find today. And it keeps happening the same
way throughout his Khanda Kavya work.

Kannada in ancient and medieval Marathi literature:
Maharashtra's Varakari panth and Karnataka's Dasa panthas were of the same era. Both thrive in Krishna or Vitthala bhakti (devotion). Marathi saints have openly announced that the Pandharapur's Vitthala or Vitthoba is of Kannada origin.

Meaning, Vitthala came to Pandharapur from Karnataka. Per Dr.Katkar, scholars have identified many Kannada words in Jnaneshwar's famous commentary on Bhagavad Gita, Dnyaneshwari. The famous researcher Sham Ba Joshi even went to the extent of saying "If one has to fully understand Dnyaneshwari, he or she must know Kannada well". The father of South Indian Carnatic classical music, Purandara Dasa, has translated some songs of Dnyaneshwar from Marathi into Kannada.

The great Vachana writers in Kannada used words like Shunya, Linga, Lingabheda, Gurulinga, Shunyalinga, Aradhyalinga kind of words. Dnyanehwar has used those repeatedly in his works in Marathi.

Vithaabai was another Marathi saint. Her Abhangs too have mention of Karnataka. Sant Eknath respected Kannada with this sentence "Navo KaanaDi bhashaa". His works have many Kannada words. Marathi bhakti poet/saint Eknath and Kannada bhakti poet/saint Kanakadasa were of the same era. Eknath's bhaaruDas and Kanakadasa's manDiges have lot of overlapping inspirations.

Marathi literature has a special place for Mukteshwar. He was the grandson of Sant Eknath. Mukteshwar's father Balakrishna used to live in today's Karnataka's Gadag district's Dhambala. There's a temple on the banks of Tungabhadra's Chowdadanapura for this Mukteshwar. Per SB Joshi, Mukteshwar who translated Mahabharata into Marathi, was greatly influenced by the famous Kannada author Kumara Vyasa or Narayanappa from Gadag, who lived a few decades before Mukteshwar.

Here is what Mukteshwar accepts the inspiration from Kumara Vyasa's Gadugina Bharata:

And as we all know, Sant Ramdas has a special place in Marathi history. He exclaimed like this:"Chitrakala naana naTaka maNani naam Karnataka" meaning Karnataka is named as that because of plenty for drawing and dramas (nataka).

Gurla Hosur's avadhuta Chidambara Dikshit's biography is there in Marathi. His shishya Rajarama wrote his Abhangas in Marathi. But his samadhi is in Belagavi district's Govaves area.

Chhatrapati Shivaji's family connection with Karnataka:
Shivaji maharaj is an iconic figure in Indian history and particularly Maharashtra. Dr. Katkar digs in many of Shivaji's family ties with today's Karnataka. He even goes to the extent of tracing some ancestry connection of Shivaji's family name Bhonsale with the Kannada dynasty Hoysala, and to Soratur village in Karnataka. He uses Dr. RC Dhere's Marathi research to back his claims. I know that the ancestry part will get controversial, so let's leave it at that mention.

Shivaji's father Shahaji Maharaj was the Governor of Bengaluru area under Adil Shahi patronage. He was in charge of Doddaballapur, Tumakur, Kunigal, Chikkanayanaka Halli and Ramagiridurga areas. B Muddachari has detailed the life of Shahaji in Bengaluru area in his book "Mysore-Maratha Bandhavya".

Shivaji's elder brother Sambhaji Bosale had fought wars in Karnataka. He too died in Karnataka and has a samadhi in a village called
Kanakapura in Koppala district.

So the two close relatives of Shivaji, his father and brother, have samadhis in central Karnataka.

When the Moghals chased Shivaji's son Rajaram Chhatrapati, he was sheltered by Rani Keladi Chennamma in Karnataka (different from Kittur Chennamma). When Belawadi Mallamma fought a war against Marathas using an all woman army, he saw his mother Jija Bai's image in her. He respected her and sent her back.

Overall, Shivaji's family and their ties to Karnataka are intense.

Finally..

We have seen the extensive influence of Marathi in ancient/medieval Kannada literature. We have seen the indisputable influence of Kannada on ancient/medieval Marathi literature. We have seen the historical relations involving temples and kings. And there's more during modern times.

Lavani, is a type of folk music and story telling that is popular both in Marathi and Kannada.

Many sacred temples frequented by Marathi and Kannada people are common.

Dress, marriage, festivals and other cultural aspects are quite close in the border districts.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

I still see a lot of pessimism about the new projects of Government of India.
I want to write in more detail here.

Wake up Indians and NRIs.. Lots of self made leaders
have come up. Nirmala Sitharaman arm twisted even the powerful American
lobby at WTO meet by demanding that trade facilitation has to be
simultaneous with other demands of India. Even Sonia Gandhi's trusted
big name Anand Sharma had compromised last time, which this first time
minister has set right. Uma Bharti is on the ground trying to clean up
Ganga which is a project as tough as climbing Mount Everest on one leg.
The Jan Dhan Yojna is pushed by younger team so successfully, that over 7
crore new bank accounts are opened in India in just 2 months. This
speed of financial inclusiveness has never happened in India's history!
C'mon.. we are talking about 7,00,00,000+ bank accounts in 8 weeks,
with automatic life insurance coverage and debit card, in a country where it takes 3 visits for even KYC document for existing
bank account in a city bank!

India's inflation is at 5 year low. Mumbai saw a more than 3 Rupees
Diesel price cut for the first time in a long time (last time was 2
rupees cut in 2009 Jan!). Indian markets are euphoric and performing
better than most world markets. Naxals are surrendering in record
numbers. I read recently that there has been a 20 fold increase in
maoist terrorists leaving the path of terrorism in the heart of India,
and joining mainstream. I saw pictures of CRPF jawans actually carrying
surrendered naxals over their shoulders, giving them a mainstream
society welcome. The Nehruvian central planning commission which was the
white elephant slowing Indian economy is being dismantled. IMF just
issued a statement that India will be a $2 Trillion economy this year
itself! And might overtake Italy, Brazil and Russian GDPs before Modi's
first term ends..

Never before a 1 lakh crore fund for entrepreneurs was setup by the
government. I attended a seminar on how young Indians can get into
manufacturing entrepreneurship. I was shocked at the energy level.. They
are talking about so many start up ideas, while 3 years back 60% was
just about IT industry start ups. Smart City is another topic that every
MP and MLA is trying to encash on for his or her popularity.

In 1999 when the cyclone hit Odisha, 10,000 Indians died within 48
hours. The land fall speed of that cyclone was nearly 250KM ph.
Just last week, Hudhud cyclone hit not far from there, at Visakhapatnam,
AP. The preparation and coordination of both AP state govt and central
govt was so good, that in spite of 175+ KM land fall of the cyclone,
only 24 people died within the first 48 hours. Yes 24 is also bad, but
look at the progress ISRO, meteorological scientists and overall
disaster relief of India has come through in the past 15 years. From
10,000 deaths to 0.24% of that 15 years later, is no mean achievement. I
don't care if NDA1, UPA1, UPA2 or NDA2 takes credit. But all I say is
that, there is no need to feel pessimistic about India any more.

In 2003, when Vajpayee announced Chandrayaan and pushed the scientists,
it was of tall order. Not only India has exceeded Chandrayaan
expectation since then, it also created all sorts of records in
Mangalyaan cost. You would have heard about the euphoria at Madison
Square Garden on this.. The heart burn was so big that NY Times even
resorted to a racist cartoon which it had to later pull out with
apology. In European papers, jasmine flower clad Indian women in saree
were prominently displayed as the new face of space scientists! This
particular Modi style "dono mutthi band karke" pose was in dozens of
country's news papers, bringing India a new recognition.

And regarding working hours - talk to anyone visiting government offices
in Dilli. Officers are there on time. Even ministers are considering
it as a punishment to work under Modi now as they have to be in office
till late night. All the 4 PM booking for happy hours at trendy
establishments are slowing from babus. And every project, and every
detail is instantly put online so transparency is at it's best level
that I have seen.

Regarding the pet project of Modi, the Swacch Bharat (Clean India), I am
getting 3 to 5 Swacch Bharat pictures from youngsters across India who
have taken it as a challenge to clean up India. I have seen 100s of
people who come from a foreign visit to India, and they start about bad
mouthing the Indian "filth". Modi is the first man I have seen, who
actually came back from a foreign trip, and the very next morning, had a
broom in his hand cleaning up a police station's compound!!

I was so happy to see 16 and 17 year old students from a Bengaluru PU
college, cleaning up a 500 year old temple pond in straight 7 hours,
with no specialized tools or help. Modi's mantra of swacch Bharat has
caught the imagination of India and things are going really well.

Here's another example from Rajahmundry, AP.

India is changing from bottom up as well as top down. And it's being led
in most cases by young India - those in 15 to 35 age group. Their
energy is mind blowing!

I heard in a recent seminar a very cautious words: India's greatest
asset between 2015 and 2050 is its demographic dividend. If this is not
managed well, or if anarchists and anti-India violent guys are allowed
to brain wash them, it will turn into a demographic disaster. The choice
is yours. Particularly the well informed, globe-trotting, rich Indians should be in
the fore front of guiding young India to realize it's potential and
reclaim the 25% share of world GDP that India had for 1700 out of the
past 2000 years.

Flush out pessimism, irrespective of your political ideology. We are at
the beginning of a very long and steep climb into prominence!

Here a chart that I had prepared the last time I got frustrated with language debate. Since then, 2 more classical languages may be coming up - Odia and Malayalam.

What I have learned after decades of seeing language debates and politics... Languages unite in some cases. But in more cases, languages divide us more than they unite. I don't
have to give details of how languages have divided millions of Indians
today.. how they have made 100s of millions of Indians see other 100s of
millions of Indians as "un-Indian". The anger, the snubs, the protests, the beating, the reservations, the school politics, the ganging up, the insults.. it's just ugly in so many cases. In the height of "my language versus your language", many have stopped seeing others as a Bharatiya... or even a human deserving dignity.

The key problem is the unnecessary pride and chest beating.. If you don't learn "my language", you are not equal.. And the natural reaction is that if I abandon "my language" in government and business, it will be lost! And practically it is not possible for a regular person to learn more than 3 languages well - I mean read, write, speak and understand at high school level. With nearly 2 dozen really big languages being spoken by millions of people in each case, India is the land of language conflicts.

Frankly, I am not pro any language strongly.. I am not anti any language strongly. My take is that a language serves a purpose of communicating. Language(s) will help you get diverse information. Each have their own style and strength. They also have weaknesses. I am very proud of mine and you be proud of yours. Personally, I am all for more the merry policy! And that's pretty much it. If you start giving it too much importance and create your whole identity around a language (or opposing some other), it is not the best usage of your time. Languages evolve, borrow words, grow in vocabulary, shrink and die. It's a natural cycle. Some just undergo metamorphosis into one or more daughter languages in the course of time.

But nothing is constant. Kalaya tasmai namah. Everything that's born will die one day.
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And now the positive note:
What if.. we had a system in this 21st century, wherein You Speak Your Language, I Will Speak Mine - But We Shall Still Communicate!

Sounds crazy? Sounds impractical? It's not. Let me put in my vision and you tell me if this is possible. If possible, you are by all means free to use this idea and make money in the long run :)

But I have some ideas.. I am sure you will have lot more. And none of these are not any genius stuff as many would already be in place in advanced pockets of our globe.

1) Let's start with a visit to a tax office, a bank or an insurance office. Take the tax office. You have to deal with a tax form as shown here. You are the "kardaata" or "tax payer" in Guwahati. What if you can't read either of the languages the form is printed in? There are 100s of millions of such Indians who can read and write, but not these two languages at an expertise level to fill in a critical piece of tax information.

No problem..
You take your mobile phone that has a handy scan app built into it, and just scan over that tax form. Or you can use a more elaborate professional handy scan machine.

Voila.. the form is fully scanned and you will see on your device an Asomiya translated version. Better, you will have the ability to key in the Cheque number, type of payment etc. right into the phone. When done, simply press a button to e-print the filled form right there. The office will have it right a the desk.
For those who can afford, it can be in their car. Almost all traffic inspectors in Bengaluru today print their traffic violation payment receipt right on the street using a blackberry phone which can print.

The job is done. Those printing the challans have no language problem. They can print in one or two languages of their government or institution's interest. Those taking the service don't have to worry about learning the languages. They can fill in any language that they are familiar with. The important thing is for the job to get done well, easily and in an affordable manner.

2) Next - emergency instructions.

You are traveling from Guntur in AP to Mysuru in Karnataka. Almost all literate passengers in this inter state train would know Telugu or Kannada or both. But the night train has emergency instructions only in Hindi and English. Lakhs of people who travel interstate between these destinations would have difficulty reading and comprehending the vital emergency instructions.

Again.. use your phone, even the basic smart phone variety. Click the picture of the instructions. The app will then recognize the language(s) and give you an instant translation in Telugu or Kannada. Problem solved!

Some might say.. what's the big deal in reading these 3 lines? Trust me.. 100s of people died in train emergencies in India each year and even if 2 extra lives are saved crossing the language barrier, that's worth it.

It's not just train. It's for all emergency instructions. Plane, Volvo bus, LPG cylinder, inflammable fluid carriers, hazardous material handling factories, school premise, movie theater.. etc. etc.
When life saving instructions are not in the language you can read, they are NOT life saving! If we can make it truly language independent using sign languages, that's different. But at least here is some way to use the existing system, instead of changing it fully.

3) Moving on - Meeting a stranger for asking directions.

It has happened to almost all of us a few times in life. We ask for directions in a city or village that we are visiting, and invariably the language barrier comes in. In most cases, there's a genuine difficulty. But in some cases involving linguistic animosity, people are rude and won't help you. All of us will know at least 2 incidents in life, where we were shunted out just because we could not speak "their" language. In my view, it's risky to be language illiterate in India, particularly for women.

So here's a simple way out. You meet someone. Put a headphone bud into one ear.

Select the on source and destination language buttons on your phone. Boom... you can have a conversation. Your phone is acting as a real time translator. The other person also does the same. Even if the other person is not equipped with this app, your device will tell you what to tell after translation. Everything happens in real time! No interpreter needed. And adding a couple of simple Namaste, Thanks, Shukriya, Vanakkam will make the other person feel happy and your job will be done really well.

If you take the technology further and use Google Glass, you can do wonderful things without needing much human help. But Indian streets, particularly the non metro downtown areas, are a long way from actually using self-help Google glasses. So you need technology that can be simply used with existing human support that's available.

4) Then - Your PM speaks in Hindi.

Now this is a big issue in some pockets of south India and east India. PM Modi speaks in only in Hindi. Language pride and language hate politics kick in. Learn Hindi... Don't impose Hindi groups start quarrel. If the PM were to speak in English too, the same things would kick in, but from some pockets in the North or West or center. The point is not language. It's the proficiency we have with it, and the like we have for it. Why not use mine is always the problem!

I can't solve the language problems when we have nearly 24 languages, each spoken by at least a few million people in India. It's next to impossible. For 60+ years people have tried. So what I would try is to let you keep your language and let me keep mine.

With just 20 seconds delay, all websites and TV or radio channels that broadcast PM's speech, can do a voice change-over into destination languages. The technology exists already in Europe which is yet another highly diverse India-like continent.

Europe and UN, with dozens and sometimes 100s of languages are involved, conduct business already without any barrier. We in India are still ages behind quibbling over mundane "you speak in my language" nonsense. In Indian parliament, if you have to ask a question in the 2000 year old INDIAN language Kannada, you will have to take prior permission. Unless you have prior permission, you have no choice but to switch to one of the 2 official languages, which at least 200 MPs from non Hindi regions of India are not proficient in! And they keep quiet and their constituencies suffer because of this language barrier. It's really silly and so non-federal in nature. And the same problem across all legislative assemblies where most Indian languages are shunted out even if there are people in the state speaking those languages.

So what can be done? Let the parliamentarians find their solution. We can focus on the general public watching TV. There are a variety of instant translation mechanism available with human help. All it takes is one person per TV station or one person per group of language channels/sites. Problem solved! No more subtitles issue. No more linguistic protests. It can even be two way in any TV debate. You ask in your language and an instant translation software or human intervention can take the debate to the destination language. You can literally participate in a Bangla debate at 5 PM, a Kannada debate at 7 PM and a Hindi debate at 9 PM, if you are a channel hopping celebrity.. just kidding :)

If you want the original speaker's language, just select original voice through a remote button. In many cases, the emotion and dialogue delivery in the original language has no substitute in the translation. Additionally, another feature of play original and play translation for each sentence, where needed. This way you will learn some basics of the leader's language too. All these are possible with DVR technology and voice translation technology already. We just need to expand and make them affordable.

5) Lastly.. you are on the road.

You are vacationing in Pune from Coimbatore but can't understand Marathi..
You are visiting Lucknow from Guwahati, but not proficient in Hindi subtitles.
You are touring Tirupati from Vadodara, and can't read temple displays in Telugu.

You can't read the local news papers.. nor can read street sign boards.. nor can make out the TV scroll. It is practically impossible in India to help all languages at all places.

So.. just point your mobile towards it.

App will get the info, understand the source language, translate it and show you the translation without changing the non-text part. Instantly!

You can use this in movies.. plays.. games.. street.. and even schools and colleges.
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In summary:

No more English panditya needed. Time to take the "elite" advantage away from those who have proficiency in English. They have a distinct advantage in Indian businesses today.

No more fights on Hindi or no Hindi.. Time to take away the "elite" advantage central governments have created for those who speak Hindi, so that they alone can transact in government offices everywhere across India.

No more Tamil pride, Marathi pride etc.. politics. Time to take away regional linguistic chauvinism (sometimes justified, sometimes not) where the anger is against one or two focused linguistic groups.

No more hidden messages in one's language insulting the others. I am sure you all have seen in elevators, taxis, buses, trains, street corners..

No more wasting or ink, paint and time in printing/announcing the same info multiple times. Isn't it irritating to hear the same announcements in 3 or 4 languages at some stations?

Make the world an equal opportunity place for all languages. I have only talked of some basic applications here. There are many advanced ways these can be taken to our education, industry, government, hospitals, temples and beyond. Imagine visiting Gaya and understanding instantly the meaning of those shraddha Sanskrit mantras when attending to the last rites of a dear one? The amount of usage is practically limitless.. all we need is proficiency in ONE Bharatiya language to live happily ever after (I consider English also as a Bharatiya language now).

The best part is that no major investment is needed. With smart phones already with more than 15% of Indians now, it is just a matter of time before 75% will have smart phones. I mean it's possible even before 2020 at the current rate!

So what are you waiting for? Go start a business or create apps to work on these ideas. Be a good Engineer. After all Engineers rule the world :) Be a good linguist to help the engineers. Be a great salesman and use the best finances to get it to all corners of India. Use the technology!

Everyone can understand, read, write and speak all languages. Wah.. now pinch me!!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Today, got a chance to hear the very well informed Dr. Narendra Jadhav. He's an expert on Babasaheb Ambedkar's letters and policies. He's also an expert in Indian economics. He has written 30 books in multiple languages. You can browse more about his illustrious career or visit his website that has plenty of information.

I gathered some very nice points from his talk. They are as follows:

a) Dr. Ambedkar was fluent in Gujarati too, apart from Marathi, Hindi and English. Most people will recognize BR Ambedkar as the constitution formulator and a strong voice against untouchability in India. But very few know that the real forte of this multi faceted man was economics. Dr. Jadhav is a great resource on Dr. Ambedkar and his economics lectures.
b) BR Ambedkar has given a total of 537 speeches in his life in 4 languages. And Dr. Jadhav has compiled all of them in his English series of books. Now planning on releasing a Hindi version by December 6th, after the Marathi versions were done.
c) After independence, PM Nehru announced that India would double it's per capita income every 10 years to double the standard of living levels. But in reality, between 1951 and 1986, India's per capita income grew only at 1.2% (growth 3.3% and population growth 2.1%). At that rate it would have taken 59 years to double India's per capita income. In comparison, China doubled in 10, Korea in 13, Malaysia and Indonesia within 2 decades!
d) LPG stood for Liquified Petroleum Gas till 1991. But soon, PV Narasimha Rao's policies made LPG stand for Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization.
e) India in spite of 16 to 17% of the world's population, only had less than 1% of the world's trade in 1991. So the fear mongering against liberalization was silly. 99.5% of the world's trading economies would not "gang up" to harm an economy that formed just 0.5% of the world's trade.
f) When Deng Xiaoping was asked how come you are liberalizing the economy being a communist, he said, I don't care if the cat is black or white.. as long as it catches mice, I will take it!
g) Post liberalization, Indian economy grew at over 6% between 1992 for over a decade. It peaked at nearly 9% in 2007-08. Without liberalization it would not have grown anywhere near it.
h) Europe is facing severe economic crunch. The larger economies have exploited the smaller ones. PIIGS = Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, are disasters. Now all packages to save them.
g) India is at once in a very long time (centuries may be) kind of Demographic dividend advantage right now. India's average age now is 24. It will be 29 by 2020. By then, China would be 37, USA 38, Western Europe 42 and Japan at a disastrous level of 49. All these regions did very well economically when their demographic dividend was suitable. That means, more hands to work and less dependents to feed. Automatically, the savings would be highest during such situations. India has that opportunity of favourable demographic dividend for the next 15 years. If India messes during these 15 years, this would become Demographic Disaster.
h) The one important factor that Narendra Modi government must focus on during this Demographic Dividend window is the Social Sector - Education, Health and Social Amity. Unless these are taken care of, high growth can not be sustained.
i) In India, the education sector needs to be streamlined in order to realize Modi's dream of better skills for all youth. Right now, the ITI (technical training) is under one department while the general education (non technical, but engineering included) is under another department. This friction between the department of Labour and Department of HRD needs to be resolved.
j) Modi has announced a new department called Ministry for Skills development. This is a great step and a first time ever in India's history. However, this is having a Minister of State leading it, which might make it less efficient when cabinet level Labour and HRD ministries are at friction already.
k) There's a priority Schedule Caste and Tribe funds allocation per department as mandated by government policies. If the state has more SC/ST population than national average of around 18%, they must allocate more by department. But neither the center, nor the states have implemented this till date, in spite of demands for decades. Out of the 68 departments in the prior UPA government, only one had even a line item for SC/ST separate fund account.
j) Regarding black economy, India needs to think of the root causes and solve them. For instance the gold rate differential was 65% more in Mumbai 10 years ago. The 500 gram per head gold import reform of Manmohan Singh made it go to 15% making it unprofitable for smugglers. Similarly, we need strong laws in drugs and other areas to stop the hawala network. Just adding more police will only increase more corruption, and won't solve the problem.
h) Lastly, a very little known fact is that while Ambedkar was the man who initiated skill development in public sector, it was Tagore who initiated the skill development on the private sector via Sri Niketan after his Shanti Niketan project.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Yazidis are in news for a grave situation in northern Iraq. They are being literally exterminated by the Islamic State Jihadis. Only 7,00,000 or so Yazidis remain on the planet today and most of them are in the northern provinces of Iraq near Kurdistan. 1000s have died already this year and their mass killing via siege, starvation and other means is gut wrenching.

The world is watching without doing much to save this extremely rare race. #SaveYazidis cry on the social media is not having much effect as 10s of 1000s of them are on the verge of extinction or capture into slavery by the extreme radicals of ISIS. The situation of women and children starving to death has created an uproar across the world, but not much help is coming forward.

While researching into who these Yazidi people are, I stumbled upon some unmistakable similarity with Hindus of India. Two hours back, I didn't know much, but after putting these side by side, I am almost getting convinced that these Yazidis are a lost tribe linked to ancient Hindus of India. The overlapping features are clearly not some coincidences that you will find among pre-Abrahamic religions of the world.

Yazidis symbol is a wing spread peacock, just like Hindu god Shiva's son, Subrahmanya's mount. The most important point to note is that peacock, the national bird of India, is a native of south and south east Asia or Africa. Not found in the area of Iraq or Syria at all.

Yazidi mural on wall of their holy Lalish temple is unmistakably Hindu. You can see saree, which is an unofficial national dress of India.

Yazidi temple at Lalish has snake symbol at the entrance.
You won't find this among other tribes of Arabia or Mesopotamia. For Hindus, Subrahmanya is the other avatara of snakes and worshiped very closely for all snake related pujas like Naga Panchami.

Yazidi marry within their castes like Murids, Sheikhs and Pirs.
Hindus marry within castes. Yazidis could have something like Gotra system (researching).

Any Hindu with even basic understanding of aarti plate, will see Yazidis as their own.

Yazidis believe in continuous rebirth and reincarnation.
Same as Hindu Punar Janma concept.

Yazidis do not circumcise, a very rare thing in the middle east.
Hindus do not circumcise.

Yazidis pray with folded hands. Hindus pray very similarly to their Gods and Goddesses.
Yazidis pray at sun rise and sun set, just like Hindus. Both face the rising or setting sun when praying to sun.

Yazidis have a symbol similar to Bindi or Tilak during temple prayer, very similar to Hindu forehead custom.

For big celebrations, lighting lamp by females common to both Yazidis and Hindus.

Yazidis men worship Melek Taus by lighting fire in temples.
Hindus' do similar fire based worship to their Gods, with high regard for agni the fire.

As I read and browse, there are more similarities popping up. The trident (Shiva's trishula), the vessels used during worship (kalasha), the sound (something like dhol and shankha), sun worship methods and much more..

I am convinced that they ARE deeply connected to ancient Hindu civilization. Whether through Zoroastrian connection in Persia (today's Iran) or directly via migration, has to be researched. If you find credible sources, please share them in the comments.

And most importantly, please put pressure on the Indian, Iraqi, US, EU and other governments to save them. They have just a few days between life and death, at the current barbarism level of ISIS. Let this very rare and ancient tribe of our earth survive.

Pictures used in this blog entry are from these websites. All credits to original copyright holders: thehindu.com, www.iisd.ca, china-iraq.org, Wikipedia.com, middle-east-online.com, himavanti.org, alokmu.blogspot.com, metrography, demotix.com, indiandacoit.com, flickr.com, ibtimes.co.uk, mangalorean.com, stuartfreedman, blessingsonthenet.com and vox.com.